In the case of crop protection compositions, it is desirable in principle to increase the specific activity of an active compound and the reliability of the effect. It is particularly desirable for the crop protection composition to control the harmful plants effectively, but at the same time to be compatible with the useful plants in question. Also desirable is a broad spectrum of activity allowing the simultaneous control of harmful plants. Frequently, this cannot be achieved using a single herbicidally active compound.
With many highly effective herbicides, there is the problem that their compatibility with useful plants, in particular dicotyledonous crop plants, such as cotton, oilseed rape and graminaceous plants, such as barley, millet, corn, rice, wheat and sugar cane, is not always satisfactory, i.e. in addition to the harmful plants, the crop plants, too, are damaged on a scale which cannot be tolerated. By reducing the application rates, the useful plants are spared; however, naturally, the extent of the control of harmful plants decreases, too.
In addition there is frequently the problem that, in order to achieve the desired herbicidal activity, the herbicides can only be used within a narrow time frame, where the time frame can be influenced unpredictably by weather conditions.
It is known that special combinations of different specifically active herbicides result in enhanced activity of a herbicide component in the sense of a synergistic effect. In this manner, it is possible to reduce the application rates of herbicidally active compounds required for controlling the harmful plants.
Furthermore, it is known that in some cases joint application of specifically acting herbicides with organic active compounds, some of which may also have herbicidal activity, allows better crop plant compatibility to be achieved. In these cases, the active compounds act as antidotes or antagonists and are also referred to as safeners, since they reduce or even prevent damage to the crop plants.
The herbicidal active compound pethoxamid is known from European patent application no. EP 206251-A1 and is generally used to control weeds in various crops such as control of grass weeds and broad-leaved weeds. The compound picloram is a plant growth regulator and known from.
It is an object of the present invention to provide herbicidal compositions which are highly active against unwanted harmful plants. At the same time, the compositions should have good compatibility with useful plants. In certain aspects of the invention, the compositions according to the invention have a broad spectrum of activity.